Spring ‘07 Expansions Roadmap

Spring is coming and with it the promise of the BattleLore expansions we first hinted at here, back in November 2006.

Here is what is looming over the horizon. Some of it will be expected, some may be less so. But read on…

1. In March, we will release our first expansion: Epic BattleLore

This expansion gives you the opportunity to conduct battles on a grand scale, by combining the back side of two game boards to form a single, unified, giant battlefield.

This supplement also gives you a chance to adventure in the company of friends (up to 3 to a side), making it the format of choice to introduce new players to the game.

As a result of this – and of a unique new twist that involves a rather ingenious new use for a couple of your cardholders – we quickly expect Epic BattleLore to become the dominant format and preferred form of play for in-store events and game conventions.

Epic BattleLore – Adventures on a grand scale!

The format will feel familiar to Memoir ’44 Overlord veterans. However, the noticeably different orientation of the game boards (they are assembled along their longest edge rather than side-by-side) and a few other twists help make it a truly unique and fun new game experience, even when attempted with 2 players only.

This supplement will come with five full new Epic adventures.

To acknowledge the fact that not everyone owns a second set of the game yet , we’ve taken great care to make sure these adventures could be played using a single army set – though two games owners will undoubtedly keep a headstart!

All that is required to play these first Epic adventures is a second board, some additional Lore tokens and a friend to play with.

This expansion will initially be released Online, free of charge, to all registered users of the game, sometime during the month of March.

A paper-based version that includes a 2nd game board and some additional Lore tokens, along with more new Epic adventures, will follow in May, and be available at retail as well as on our web site.

2. In April, in a bit of departure from our originally stated plans, we will introduce and ship our first major game supplement:

Call to Arms – The Definitive Army Deployment System for BattleLore

We were so happy with what Richard came up with that, once we saw it, we shuffled our production plans around to bring this out earlier than initially planned. We are confident you will agree with our decision!

While this post is not the one in which to delve in all the details, we can already confirm that:

This expansion does NOT rely on the point-based army buying approach common to many miniature games.

Rather, it uses a novel, card-driven deployment mechanism, centered around the use of Deployment decks, Specialist cards and Feudal Levy tokens.

The deployment mechanics introduced in this expansion closely mimic medieval deployments of yore, and will provide you with a uniquely fun and enjoyable way to customize your troops and deploy your armies.

This expansion is expected to ship in April. It will be available at retail as well as on our web site for a suggested retail price of about $ 20.

3. In May, the benefits of changing the release schedule will become even clearer as we start shipping our first Figure sets, in the form of Specialist packs.

We received much feedback from Distributors and Resellers alike on the pros and cons of the blistered figures approach we had started experimenting with when we shipped our first promotional figures. These conversations convinced us that this format, while seductive, was not the best.

So we went back to the drawing board and came up with the concept of Specialist packs.

Each Specialist pack will introduce a couple of new units centered around a common theme. Likely early candidates include a Goblin Skirmisher set, a Dwarven Battalion (complete with the already infamous Dwarven Bagpipers!), and a 100 Years War Battalion.

Each of these packs will be available at retail, as well as on our web site, for a retail price of approximately $ 20.

Because we did not want this change of format to make us renege on our pledge to make new figures available on a unit by unit basis, we will also release these in single-unit blisters, exclusively off our web site. We are still working out a few specifics; more information should follow in late March.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 16th, 2007 at 6:38 pm and is filed under BattleLore, Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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The future of this game sounds great and I believe that they are definitely doing the right thing with the release schedule, but it looks like more waiting in store. I am ready to spend my money now, but I guess all good things come to those who wait.

Epic battles log in between an hour and 90 minutes, in our experience (with 2 players, that is). It’s such an engrossing experience however, that it really doesn’t feel that long. But one of the neat thing is that the larger scope of these adventures let them unfold in a truly satisfying way.

I applaud you guys for releasing a second board, lore tokens etc, so the epic battles can be played without having to buy a second full set! Or without me having to mix my guys in with my friends set. I’m very much looking forward to playing the game with > 2 players, since I routinelly play games with my two kids, and it’s rare for me to get time to play 2 player games.

Sounds to me like you guys are on exactly the right track. Providing both the free online version and the boxed version of the epic rules is excellent, and being able to build/deploy armies independent of published scenarios is something I have been hoping for.

Can you provide any illumination as to how many minis/banners/troop types might comprise a unit in one of the specialist packs? Will the packs be concentrated on a single race a la Warhammer or will they be set up to include two opposing factions like Heroscape does? Will the packs and blisters include rules addendums, or will the rules be constrained to new weapon/troop cards shipped with the units? If they will be on cards, is there any plan to mitigate the component/card sprawl that could occur with several expansions out on the table? Perhaps a semi-annual/annual compendium of the new rules and items released?

I think 2 hours for epic sounds more resonable for the typical Battlelore player. Which isn’t that bad. But current games I’m playing range from 45 minutes to 90 minutes for just the regular board. Depending on complexity of the map and my opponent.

You mentioned you’ll be releasing single figure blisters exclusively on your website. That’s great so that we can add to our armies for Epic without having to buy another copy. Though can you make ALL of the various figures available separately? Not just the new stuff but from the original game. I’d like to get more of the various figures myself and I’m sure others would agree.

How many figures are we looking at in one of these Specialist Packs? Obviously it will depend a bit on size, but for $20 I’d sort of expect a moderate number. (Frantically doing sums to convert into Aussie dollars…)

That’s a very good question. Can we get an estimation on how many figures or how many units an expansion pack will hold? You are talking about a couple of new units, so does this mean that we will get maybe 2 cav units (6 figures) and 2 foot units (8 figures) + 2-3 drummers in the goblin expansion for example? Any other goodies in the expansion packs or only figures and their cards?

The question about the brigades’ size in SpecPacks was one I wanted to ask too… but, I’ve been anticipated, ^_^, so, instead, I’m curious about the “Call to Arms” expansion set, precisely if it will already contain some of the new units: someone, here and there, is guessing not, but given the consumer-friendly marketing choices made by Days of Wonder I doubt that the rules supplement will not be accompanied by some “meat” for army customization – also considered that the artwork on the box depict clearly many of them… I want my ostriche riders! “Living la Vida Struzza” ^_^ !
Alas, best regards and keep up the good work!

That way we could get all the different upcoming title information in one web link instead of having to click around between multiple web pages and multiple web sites. The current structure is too balkanized for easy navigation.